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Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207–1282)

The flowing of divine light

Mechthild of Magdeburg was the first mystic to write in German.
She wrote her book The Flowing Light of the Godhead as God's lover.
But the true author of the book, according to her, was God himself
and the text had flowed into her like the light of the Godhead.

Mechthild's famous book is highly poetic and contains a variety
of texts. It includes prayers, accounts of visions, songs of
praise, bible commentaries, and many dramatic dialogues (between
the soul and its divine lover as well as between the living and the
dead).

The I in The Flowing Light of the Godhead understands herself as
lover. She converses with her lover about salvation history and
participates in his creation as fellow saviour. In Mechthild's
book, the loving soul and its divine partner behave with each other
like the lovers in the Old Testament Song of Songs: they desire
each other, unite, but nevertheless - at least on earth - have
always to painfully let go of each other again. In this, the
limitation of the possibilities of experience in the body are
discovered. But the separation also enables another, negative,
experience of God.

The original of Mechthild's text, which was written in Middle
Low German, is lost. The oldest existing source is the manuscript
of the translation into Allemanic from the Benedictine monastery of
Einsiedeln which is exhibited here.